The Flea Personification

     In the poem “The Flea” by John Donne, the speaker uses clever sexual innuendo and metaphors in an attempt to manipulate a certain girl into losing her virginity to him. The poem begins with the speaker explaining that a flea has bit both him and her, and now both of

The words in the poem that surround what will happen if they don’t have sex are that she will be eaten by the worms and they will ultimately try to take her “virginity” while he holds the idea of her remaining a virgin forever in disdain, but on the other hand there will be repercussions for him as well, in the sense that all his sexual fantasies, desires, and wants will burn up, “And into ashes my lust” (Line 30). In the poem “The Flea” by John Donne has powerful imagery in it as well, such as the blood representing life experiences in and of itself, but in the story when it says “It sucked me first, and now sucks thee, /And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;” is basically telling us that a flea had bitten and drawn blood from the male and female and that these two bloods have intermingled, so in the speakers convincing argument to the woman was that their bloods are intermingled, thus persuading the woman that they are as one now as the poem states “This flea is you and I, and this/Our marriage bed”(Lines12-13) and should become sexually involved with each other since they are “married” within the flea. Therefore, the two poems contain vivid sexually charged imagery.

In the poem “To His Coy Mistress” the man uses the idea that one day he and his lover will grow old and no longer be beautiful, and that they must take advantage of the opportunity to have sex while they are still full of youth and energy. In the poem Marvell writes: “Thy beauty shall no more be found, nor in thy marble vault, shall sound my echoing song; then worms shall try that long preserved virginity.” (Ln 25-28). This is relevant because it makes clear that there is no telling how life will turn out and while she is trying to maintain honor what good will it be if she dies of old age and worms take her purity. In the poem “The Flea” Donne takes a different route of attack by trying to convince the woman that just because she gives up her virginity does not make her any less of a woman nor does it give her a legitimate reason to kill herself. In the poem Donne writes: “Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thou find’st not thy self nor me the weaker now.” (ln 23-24). This is relevant because it insinuates that they are human, and just because others say they are less than that because of sex before marriage does not make it true nor should they feel like it

As in the other stanzas, this arranges its four supporting arguments into three couplets and a triplet by rhyme. However, whereas the first stanza loosely held the ideas to couplets, the second shows more organization in thought. This further structure is necessary to support the conceit of the flea as a holy church. The support for this idea is arranged into the following four sub-argument: one, do not kill the flea, because we have conceived within it; two, thus, the flea is like a “marriage bed,” and by extension, a “marriage temple”; three, despite your parents’ and your concerns, that’s the way it is; and four, if you kill the flea, you commit three sins – killing me, killing yourself, and sacrilege by violating the sanctity of the marriage temple. Note that Donne does present an argument to seduce his beloved in this stanza. His words are filled solely with reverence and concern for the flea. Through this, we can see the earnestness and seriousness of the passion he has for his beloved: the sanctity of their relationship – even their surrogate relationship within the flea – is sacred to him.

The speaker in Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress'; is a man who is addressing a silent listener, who happens to be his mistress. In this dramatic monologue the speaker tries to explain his feelings to his mistress. The speaker uses many allusions to empires and other objects, events and ideas that are not directly related to his feelings, in order to explain how he feels. He uses these allusions to exaggerate his feelings in order to clearly show them. After reading over the poem once, you get a sense of what the speaker is feeling. Upon further analysis of the poem you realize that the allusions used in the poem, are in fact, what makes this poem so interesting.

While both Andrew Marvell in “To His Coy Mistress” and Robert Herrick in “To the Virgin to Make Much Time,” both poems express the same idea of Carpe Diem, Marvell wants his mistress to give into his seduction by persuading her with images of worms crawling inside of her and Herrick is asking all young women to deference the idea of embracing their sexuality and to enjoy beauty while one still has it.

The metaphor is further enforced in lines 8 and 9 when Donne illustrates the image of the swollen flea "pampered swells with one blood made of two" (line 8) introducing the image of a baby, and the idea of pregnancy. With the possible allusion of a pregnancy Donne is emphasizing that he is attempting to sleep with the woman. Thus, Donne continues to use the image of a flea to unconventionally simplify lovemaking. The absurdity of the poem is portrayed through the use of a flea to convince a woman into bed, when a flea would typically connote repulsiveness, dependency, and something ugly and simple, which mooches off of others. In the second stanza of the poem, the speaker continues to emphasize his conceit, although it has become clear that the woman wants to remove the flea from her body, and consequentially the relationship with the speaker. "Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare" (line 10), the speaker is now relying on guilt, persuading the woman to spare not only the life of the flea, however he goes as far as mentioning the lives of himself and the woman. Drawing a comparison once again to the act of love, the speaker mentions marriage, portraying that the flea has joined them eternally much like a marriage would. Marriage is a significant motif in the second stanza, which also relates to

In both poems there is the recurrent theme of irony. In “To His Coy Mistress” the poem’s entire first section is ironic in the sense that the speaker knows he isn’t being genuine. The speaker uses words to his advantage and we can take little of what he says to be truthful. In Line 1, “Had we but world enough, and time”. The first section of the poem is a series of hyperbolic statements meant to impress and flatter the reader but the

Both ‘Mrs Sisyphus’ and ‘the Flea’ seek to present us with complex, arguably discordant relationships between men and women. Duffy and Donne exploit the satirical potential of light-hearted comic verse to present serious issues in a light-hearted manner. Despite the overwhelmingly light-hearted tone of both poems, it can still be argued that relationships are presented in a negative light.

love. In just two lines we can already the feel of the poem and build

In the final stanza the woman kills the flea. Unsurprisingly, the very dramatic Donne labels the death as “cruel and sudden” (3.1). He goes on to say that she has “purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence” (3.2). What he means by this is that the flea has done nothing more than suck her blood, yet she has ended its life. Since the mingling of blood is representative of sex, it implies that the act of sex is

The poem “To My Coy Mistress” author Andrew Marvell try to convince a young lady to give him her virginity. Marvell illustrates the themes of time, love, lust, men and women. In his pursuit of his mistress Marvell uses different tones throughout the story as well as figurative language to connect to the readers . Time is a theme that is illustrated throughout the poem, and amount of time Marvell wants to spend with his mistress loving her, as well as courting her. The narrator of the story puts a time limit for the mistress to be indecisive with her feelings.

The Flea and To His Coy Mistress are two poems written by poets living during the Renaissance Period. To His Coy Mistress was written by Andrew Marvell and The Flea was written by John Donne. Both of these poets were well-educated 'metaphysical poets', and these poems illustrate metaphysical concerns, highly abstract and theoretical ideas, that the poets would have been interested in. Both poems are based around the same idea of trying to reason with a 'mistress' as to why they should give up their virginity to the poet.

The Jet Black Flea: A Language Analysis of John Donne’s “The Flea” The cultural outlook toward the venereal desires shared by the population during the 17th century was essentially one of abstinence until marriage. In his poem “The Flea”, John Donne establishes an imagined debate regarding chastity and the mortal yearning between lovers. A scholar witnessing this debate in a modern social landscape characterized by a difference in values regarding pre-marital sex may have difficulty understanding the sentiment behind “The Flea” and must begin with an investigation of the contemporary language used throughout.